It has now been some months since I made great promises to go off to Morocco and think about a Sacred Sociology. As it happens, I did that. On a number of bus and train journeys across Southern Spain and down through Morocco to the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, I thought about what a Sacred Sociology for the twenty first century might look like. At some point I may even come back to it and write out some of my thoughts.
The issue was not the holiday, it was coming back, hitting the new term and never quite getting around to putting something down on the blog again. Time passed and it was already Christmas, the New Year, the new term and my life just seemed to be getting ever more busy. Then, last week, it was announced that I am to begin a new job in two months time, on the 1st May, as Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Swansea. That will no doubt be even busier than the current role, but it has given me an excuse to get back to the blog and, at least mentally, to make a commitment to keep it going through the transition and hopefully on into the new role itself.
One of the things that this does mean is that I can in fact begin to refocus the blog much more clearly on the four distinct strands that I began with (over two years ago?) which now make even more sense within the new role. It is the relationship between the strands of my quartet, and my own ability to see links and juxtapositions between them, that is going to make the new role particularly intellectually exciting for me.
First: there will be a commentary on the Higher Education scene more generally (perhaps seen from a distinctively Welsh perspective in the new role) but always, from my own point of view, with an eye on the international context. Much of what I do will be reflecting on policy, strategy and practice and as that is the day job the chance to comment more speculatively within the blog will be helpful. This will not, however, be a blow by blow commentary on the role of the PVC.
Second: what I called the 'post-post-modernism'. My role at Swansea will cover a number of different areas but at its core is an oversight of the research agenda for Arts, Humanities and the Social Sciences. I have always been keen to develop a much more integrated, interdisciplinary approach within these fields and the role at Swansea, engaging with some really top quality researchers across these disciplines, will, in part, give me an opportunity to explore this further. Whether the focus will be on complexity, post-post-modernism, or even the Sacred Sociology, this will be where, intellectually and practically, much of my thought will focus.
Third: the new role is not intended to be a research post, but I will, of course, continue to research and at the core of that will be the continuing development of my general theory of religion. This term I am really enjoying myself giving a series of lectures to our first year here in Birmingham on Myth. A colleague described the study of myth to me as the history of ideas over the last hundred and fifty years. The next book I write, after the Dogon text, will be on myth (volume four of the general theory) and much of what I read will be in this area so no doubt I will have some very interesting comments to make on this in passing.
Fourth: meanwhile I still have the Dogon book to complete and I am on target to complete the main draft by the end of the summer. I am really enjoying doing the research on that, reading in so many different fields that I had not even known to exist, discovering patterns and connections and that often just leave me speechless, and even enjoying wading through great early twentieth century tomes in French. It has been great fun and a real eye opener. Even when the book is completed, however, I will not be able to leave the Dogon alone, they are one of my real passions. And so, they will be the fourth string to my bow (as it were).
My aim is once a week, so let's see how I get on this time...
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